Martin Devlin: Gutted for our boys who tried so hard

You don't have a choice but to support the Hurricanes when you come from Wellington, writes Martin Devlin. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

I am gutted for our boys. No, actually I am worse than gutted ... I am devastated and pissed at the result.

The Highlanders deserved to win. They led for the whole game and took their opportunities.

I am now going to go into a dark hole.

But I'll eventually look back on the Hurricanes' ride of 2015 as being right up there as one of the better times of New Zealand sport that I have loved.

You don't have a choice but to support the Hurricanes when you come from Wellington.

We are all Wellington boys and Wellington fans.

When Super Rugby started in 1996 we were kind of the motley crew of the competition. We even had players from the NPC second and third divisions.

Since 1996, we have beaten the best team in the competition, then gone on to lose to the worst. And if there was a banana skin, we would find it.

We always desperately try to make it, but never quite do. The old home ground of Athletic Park was almost perfect because it was such a ramshackle place.

The 1998 clash against the Reds there best summed that up.

We'd scored four tries in the first half and the crowd was screaming "bonus point". But the tide turned, the Hurricanes lost and after the game you could have heard a pin drop as 30,000 fans walked down Adelaide Rd.

This year has been so different.

They've defended like their lives depended on the result, they've got tight, they've scored some of the most outrageous tries, and momentum just brings more momentum.

• Radio Sport's Martin Devlin is a committed Hurricanes fan ... win, lose or draw.